Reform Slate Seeks to Return Power to Members at Oregon's Largest Union - The Source

A growing movement for greater member democracy is reshaping labor unions across Oregon, and the state’s largest labor union representing 72,000 Oregon workers could be next.

A statewide slate of member leaders has launched the first serious bid for change at SEIU 503 in years, campaigning on increased transparency, stronger member participation, executive accountability, and a renewed commitment to building worker power after long standing racial tensions in the union finally publicly boiled over.

The campaign emerges after years of concerns from members about transparency, decision-making, and leadership accountability. Those concerns came to a head following a widely publicized racist incident within the union in 2025 and what many members viewed as an inadequate response from executive leadership. Reform leaders say the incident exposed deeper cultural and structural problems within the organization, including longstanding racial tensions, barriers to meaningful member participation, and a leadership culture increasingly disconnected from the workers the union represents.

The SEIU Member Led Future reform slate says that in addition to their concerns that the current Executive Director has proven herself ill equipped to effectively navigate complex racial inclusivity concerns, her background as a political operative for theOregon Democratic establishment – and never having been a member of the union – is equally disqualifying.

“The purpose of our union is not to serve as a career ladder for staff or a rubber stamp for political interests. It is to build worker power and fight for transformative improvements in the lives of working people,” said Denise Piza, candidate for Executive Director and member of the SEIU Member Led Future slate. “Our membership is diverse, multilingual, and deeply rooted in communities across Oregon. We deserve leadership that reflects those realities and trusts members to help shape the future of our union. There is a culture of top-down control inside our union that we would never tolerate from an employer. We are running to restore voice to the workers represented by SEIU 503, return decision-making power to the rank and file, and build a union rooted in accountability, transparency, inclusion, and shared power.”

This Spring, a similar reform effort swept to power at the Oregon Nurses Association, where rank and file member leaders also ran on a statewide slate based on retaking control from union executives who repeatedly undermined and sold out membership. In both instances, executive resistance to strike efforts popularly backed by membership of both unions was a key issue, as was lack of transparency by union executives and systemic disenfranchisement of member participation. SEIU 503 has not struck since 1995, eroding a core muscle essential to union power and first-rate contracts, despite multiple strikes receiving membership authorization by direct vote since then.

The newly elected reform slate at the Oregon Nurses Association will be sworn in this July; the election for the reform slate at SEIU 503 – which includes the direct election of their next Executive Director – will be in late August.

This story is based on submitted information and has not been verified by our news team.